Buffalo 2 Modular Space Exploration Vehicle

[Angelo Kerman]

1 hour ago, Rutabaga22 said:

That is so freakin' cool! Can't wait for the full version of B2! When Ksp2 comes out and you learn how to mod it will B2 be on your priority list of mods for it?

Thanks! I have a few more parts to make before I can put together a pre-release that'll let you make the chopper. When KSP 2 is released, I'm not sure what will carryover from KSP 1. It's possible that I'll have to start over from scratch in order to make parts that meet the new game's standards. At any rate, the mods that I make will depend on what KSP 2 comes with. I know that I'll start over with Kerbal Flying Saucers, and possibly make submarine parts too.

Meanwhile, I got a bonus part made tonight: The B2 Inline Ballast Tank. This was slated for Phase 3 but I realized that I had what I needed to complete it. It has no part variants, this is the form factor for Buffalo 2's submarine parts. Here's a look:

[SkyFall2489]

7 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

Thanks! I have a few more parts to make before I can put together a pre-release that'll let you make the chopper. When KSP 2 is released, I'm not sure what will carryover from KSP 1. It's possible that I'll have to start over from scratch in order to make parts that meet the new game's standards. At any rate, the mods that I make will depend on what KSP 2 comes with. I know that I'll start over with Kerbal Flying Saucers, and possibly make submarine parts too.

Meanwhile, I got a bonus part made tonight: The B2 Inline Ballast Tank. This was slated for Phase 3 but I realized that I had what I needed to complete it. It has no part variants, this is the form factor for Buffalo 2's submarine parts. Here's a look:

Could I request that you work on B2 Phase 2 before Blueshift Whipcrack? I'm more excited for B2, but other people may have other opinions.

[Angelo Kerman]

45 minutes ago, SkyFall2489 said:

Could I request that you work on B2 Phase 2 before Blueshift Whipcrack? I'm more excited for B2, but other people may have other opinions.

That's actually my plan. Whipcrack is a concept at present and not one I'm positive I'll make. As I mentioned in the Blueshift thread, the Blueshift mod already has alternatives such as building jumpgates or discovering alien ones (if you have Space Anomalies and alien jumpgates turned on). That might be enough, actually.

[Ooglak Kerman]

I had been wondering about that.  Now it will fit into something to take the plane to Laythe or Blalo.  Noice!!!  Thanks.

So..  I just got my DSEV station (non-warp) out to Tylo.  The view out the command module is e-ticket!

[Ooglak Kerman]

1 hour ago, Angel-125 said:

That's actually my plan. Whipcrack is a concept at present and not one I'm positive I'll make. As I mentioned in the Blueshift thread, the Blueshift mod already has alternatives such as building jumpgates or discovering alien ones (if you have Space Anomalies and alien jumpgates turned on). That might be enough, actually.

Uh ohh.. there is rumor of Jeb and his interplanetary property transfer engineers going and snagging all the alien jump gates in the system and making yet another art thing.

Did you know that if you don't activate a gate, and have an armed klaw - that you can fly right to the center of the gate and grab it?

Edited September 3, 2022 by Ooglak Kerman

[Angelo Kerman]

2 minutes ago, Ooglak Kerman said:

Uh ohh.. there is rumor of Jeb and his interplanetary property transfer engineers going and snagging all the alien jump gates in the system and making yet another art thing.

Did you know that if you don't activate a gate, and have an armed klaw - that you can fly right to the center of the gate and grab it?

Just grabbing the gravity plane...

[Ooglak Kerman]

I'm a little bummed at having to use the stock cupolas on the Tylo Station rather than the cupola version of the B2 command module.  Contract demanded a viewing cupola.  And dang, none of the B2 or DSEV parts are EVA manipulable.  I can fix that though.  Tylo station needs a better viewing cupola and maybe a gym.

[Angelo Kerman]

3 hours ago, Ooglak Kerman said:

I'm a little bummed at having to use the stock cupolas on the Tylo Station rather than the cupola version of the B2 command module.  Contract demanded a viewing cupola.  And dang, none of the B2 or DSEV parts are EVA manipulable.  I can fix that though.  Tylo station needs a better viewing cupola and maybe a gym.

If you have Sandcastle, all the Buffalo 2 body modules can be placed in cargo storage and be manipulated via EVA Construction.

[RealKerbal3x]

@Angel-125 Just dropping in to say how awesome this is, Buffalo has never looked so good!

This is probably a long shot given that you're planning to retire from KSP1 modding soon, but any chance we could see Heisenberg's Bison get a similar revamp? Would be fantastic knowing how good the DSEV refit turned out, but if you have too much on your plate already do ignore me. Whatever happens, I'm really looking forward to seeing your modding adventures in KSP2

[Ooglak Kerman]

9 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

If you have Sandcastle, all the Buffalo 2 body modules can be placed in cargo storage and be manipulated via EVA Construction.

Ye gads!  Reprieve!  To the Sandcastle mod.... mobile...

[Angelo Kerman]

8 hours ago, RealKerbal3x said:

@Angel-125 Just dropping in to say how awesome this is, Buffalo has never looked so good!

This is probably a long shot given that you're planning to retire from KSP1 modding soon, but any chance we could see Heisenberg's Bison get a similar revamp? Would be fantastic knowing how good the DSEV refit turned out, but if you have too much on your plate already do ignore me. Whatever happens, I'm really looking forward to seeing your modding adventures in KSP2

Thanks! What a difference 7 years of skill improvements makes! Back in 2015, I styled the Buffalo to resemble the vehicles driving around KSC- hence the boxy shape. This time around I went for a sliced cylinder look to make it easier to turn into station parts.

Unfortunately, I have too much on my plate to revise the Bison as well. Looking at the parts that I have slated for Buffalo 2, and how long it's taken me to get Phase 1 done, I expect to be busy up to the end of the year- my cutoff date for finishing modding KSP 1. I don't see finishing mods like SunkWorks or the mothership for Kerbal Flying Saucers (which will make an appearance in KSP 2), let alone older mods like Heisenberg in the cards. Parts simply take too much time to make, and I have to work for a living, so my free time is limited.

[RealKerbal3x]

35 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

Thanks! What a difference 7 years of skill improvements makes! Back in 2015, I styled the Buffalo to resemble the vehicles driving around KSC- hence the boxy shape. This time around I went for a sliced cylinder look to make it easier to turn into station parts.

Unfortunately, I have too much on my plate to revise the Bison as well. Looking at the parts that I have slated for Buffalo 2, and how long it's taken me to get Phase 1 done, I expect to be busy up to the end of the year- my cutoff date for finishing modding KSP 1. I don't see finishing mods like SunkWorks or the mothership for Kerbal Flying Saucers (which will make an appearance in KSP 2), let alone older mods like Heisenberg in the cards. Parts simply take too much time to make, and I have to work for a living, so my free time is limited.

No worries there, I'll certainly be following along with Buffalo 2 until release!

(Especially excited to play with tiltrotors again, it's been a while since I last did that with the original Buffalo)

[Ooglak Kerman]

11 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

Thanks! What a difference 7 years of skill improvements makes! Back in 2015, I styled the Buffalo to resemble the vehicles driving around KSC- hence the boxy shape. This time around I went for a sliced cylinder look to make it easier to turn into station parts.

Unfortunately, I have too much on my plate to revise the Bison as well. Looking at the parts that I have slated for Buffalo 2, and how long it's taken me to get Phase 1 done, I expect to be busy up to the end of the year- my cutoff date for finishing modding KSP 1. I don't see finishing mods like SunkWorks or the mothership for Kerbal Flying Saucers (which will make an appearance in KSP 2), let alone older mods like Heisenberg in the cards. Parts simply take too much time to make, and I have to work for a living, so my free time is limited.

So... the future of Heisenberg is....  uncertain?  Fitting!

Clever you with ModuleStorablePart with Sandcastle.  That took me a little digging.

[Angelo Kerman]

Today I fixed some mesh issues on the tilt-rotor, got the smoke trail working, and reworked the engine sounds.

The chopper parts are by no means complete, but you can find a pre-release of Buffalo 2 v 1.1: Get to da choppah! here.

Remember, you will need Kerbal Actuators in order to use the new parts. It's on CKAN, but you can also get it here.

[Rutabaga22]

Very cool!

 

[Ooglak Kerman]

Mashing around Laythe in one of these would be cool. 

[SkyFall2489]

23 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Thanks! What a difference 7 years of skill improvements makes! Back in 2015, I styled the Buffalo to resemble the vehicles driving around KSC- hence the boxy shape. This time around I went for a sliced cylinder look to make it easier to turn into station parts.

Unfortunately, I have too much on my plate to revise the Bison as well. Looking at the parts that I have slated for Buffalo 2, and how long it's taken me to get Phase 1 done, I expect to be busy up to the end of the year- my cutoff date for finishing modding KSP 1. I don't see finishing mods like SunkWorks or the mothership for Kerbal Flying Saucers (which will make an appearance in KSP 2), let alone older mods like Heisenberg in the cards. Parts simply take too much time to make, and I have to work for a living, so my free time is limited.

What if you were to throw the Whipcrack idea out there, and let the community work on it if you don't want to? I'm sure there are modelers and coders out there who would be happy taking on this project.

[JadeOfMaar]

1 hour ago, SkyFall2489 said:

What if you were to throw the Whipcrack idea out there, and let the community work on it if you don't want to? I'm sure there are modelers and coders out there who would be happy taking on this project.

They can do as I did (where I created Impulse Party). Per his license: Don't take and edit his textures and models to make things, but you're free (as ever) to make your own parts, your own mod, with dependency on Blueshift's plugin(s).

I have ideas brewing for my own Whipcrack (3.75m or otherwise) and new and better looking warp parts. But higher priority is given to several other things already so I can't promise them.

Edited September 4, 2022 by JadeOfMaar

[Angelo Kerman]

2 hours ago, SkyFall2489 said:

What if you were to throw the Whipcrack idea out there, and let the community work on it if you don't want to? I'm sure there are modelers and coders out there who would be happy taking on this project.

It's not so much a question of do I want to make the Whipcrack, it's more a question of, is it a viable solution considering that Blueshift already has warp tech and jumpgates.

[SkyFall2489]

2 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

It's not so much a question of do I want to make the Whipcrack, it's more a question of, is it a viable solution considering that Blueshift already has warp tech and jumpgates.

It may be something for its own mod. "Redshift" ?

[Blufor878]

Probably gonna sound dumb, but what is Whipcrack?

[Angelo Kerman]

5 hours ago, Blufor878 said:

Probably gonna sound dumb, but what is Whipcrack?

Whipcrack is an FTL jump engine that I'm working on for my Blueshift mod. This discussion actually belongs in the Blueshift thread; this is Buffalo, and I'm currently working on the parts needed to make a tilt-rotor. But I clearly need to  work on Whipcrack before somebody comes along and steals my idea. So, I'm putting B2 on hold again, and working on the jump engine.

[Ooglak Kerman]

I've been looking at how to reduce the number of stock parts on my new orbital station in favor of DSEV and Buffalo.  How did I miss the centrifuges?  And the Advanced Dual Axis Solar Array.  Those are cool!

Integrating all three into a station has been a whole day of work.  The Dual Axis Solar Array in particular is a lot of work if you don't accept it clipping into other stuff.  I now have a station with all of the B2 and DSEV module types and both centrifuges along with the Clydesdale and gravatic drive.  159 Kerbal capacity not including the B2 Gym, Galley, and Observation modules.
All for a mere 120 parts and 266 Tons for a non-warp capable.  Warp ship does not add too many more parts.  This new one will be going out to Wal tomorrow.

Fun!

 

Edited September 5, 2022 by Ooglak Kerman

[Ooglak Kerman]

Jeb saw the D2 Centrifuge and immediately saw the possibility as an orbital merry-go-round with seats on it, but alas...  it won't let you stick things to it.

 

[Angelo Kerman]

1 hour ago, Ooglak Kerman said:

Jeb saw the D2 Centrifuge and immediately saw the possibility as an orbital merry-go-round with seats on it, but alas...  it won't let you stick things to it.

 

If you have Breaking Ground, try DSEV's Rotating Hub.